Yellow Earth, the 1984 period piece foray into the struggling inception and indoctrination of Chinese Communism is deftly and critiquely handled by director Kaige Chen and cinematographer Yimou Zhang. The film placed in 1930s China follows Gu, a young impressionable Communist soldier as he tries to gather folk songs from a meager and desolate rural village, to boost Chinese nationalist moral in a time of war. However, when he arrives, he is greeted with desolation and extreme poverty, as he slowly but surely falls in love with Cuciqao the daughter of his host, who carries the mightiest singing voice in the village.
